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Food
Alliance cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various cultures. Bread is the staple, followed by other foods made from cereals, such as porridge and pasta. Meat is more prestigious and more expensive than grain or vegetables. Common seasonings included verjuice (unripe grape juice), wine and vinegar. These, along with the widespread use of honey or sugar (among those who can afford it), give many dishes a sweet-sour flavor. The most popular types of meat are pork and chicken, while beef, which requires greater investment in land, is less common. Cod and herring are mainstays among the northern population, but a wide variety of other saltwater and freshwater fish are also eaten. Almonds, both sweet and bitter, are eaten whole as garnish, or more commonly ground up and used as a thickener in soups, stews, and sauces. Particularly popular is almond milk, which is a common substitute for animal milk as a cooking medium during religious fast days. Slow transportation and inefficient food preservation techniques prevent long-distance trade of many foods. For the most part, only the wealthy, especially the nobility, can afford imported ingredients such as spices. Because of this, their cuisine is more prone to foreign influence than the cuisine of poorer people. As each level of society imitates the one above it, innovations from international trade and foreign wars gradually disseminate through the upper middle class of Alliance cities. Dietary norms The cuisines of the cultures around the Sea of Fallen Stars have since antiquity been based on cereals, particularly various types of wheat. Porridge and gruel, and later bread became the basic food staple that made up the majority of calorie intake for most of the population. The dependence on wheat has remained as significant long into Alliance era, and has spread northwards. The centrality of bread in religious rituals means that it enjoys an especially high prestige among foodstuffs. Only (olive) oil and wine have a comparable value, but remain so much more exclusive outside of the warmer wine and olive growing regions. The religions of the Alliance and their calendars have great influence on eating habits. Exempt from fasting regulations are children, the old, pilgrims, workers and beggars, but not the poor as long as they have some sort of shelter. Medical science in the Alliance has an influence on what is considered healthy and nutritious. One's lifestyle — including diet, exercise, appropriate social behavior, and approved medical remedies — is the way to good health, and all types of food are assigned certain properties that affect a person's health. All foodstuffs are also classified by the scientists of some countries on scales ranging from hot to cold and moist to dry, according to the four bodily humors theory. Alliance scholars in some countries consider human digestion to be a process similar to cooking. The processing of food in the stomach is seen as a continuation of the preparation initiated by the cook. In order for the food to be properly "cooked" and for the nutrients to be properly absorbed, it is important that the stomach be filled in an appropriate manner. Easily digestible foods should be consumed first, followed by gradually heavier dishes. If this regimen is not respected it is believed that heavy foods will sink to the bottom of the stomach, thus blocking the digestion duct, so that food will digest very slowly and cause putrefaction of the body and draw bad humors into the stomach. It is also of vital importance that food of differing properties not be mixed. Before a meal, the stomach will preferably be "opened" with an apéritif that is preferably of a hot and dry nature: confections made from sugar- or honey-coated spices like ginger, caraway and seeds of anise, fennel or cumin, wine and sweetened fortified milk drinks. As the stomach has been opened, it should then be "closed" at the end of the meal with the help of a digestive, most commonly a dragée, which consists of lumps of spiced sugar, or hypocras, a wine flavored with fragrant spices, along with aged cheese. A meal ideally begins with easily digestible fruit, such as apples. It would then be followed by vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, purslane, herbs, moist fruits, light meats like chicken or goat kid with potages and broths. Later would be consumed heavy meats such as pork and beef, as well as vegetables and nuts like pears and chestnuts, both considered difficult to digest. It is popular (and recommended by medical expertise) to finish the meal with aged cheese and various digestives. The most ideal food, some believe, is that which most closely matches the humor of human beings, i.e. moderately warm and moist. Food should preferably also be finely chopped, ground, pounded and strained to achieve a true mixture of all the ingredients. White wine is believed to be cooler than red and the same distinction is applied to red and white vinegar. Milk is moderately warm and moist, but the milk of different animals is often believed to differ. Egg yolks are considered to be warm and moist while the whites are cold and moist. Regional cuisines of the Alliance Geographical variation is the result of differences in climate. Though sweeping generalizations should be avoided, more or less distinct areas where certain foodstuffs dominate can be discerned. In the Moonshae Isles, northern Dalelands, the Low Countries, northern Rockhome, the Northlands and the Moonsea the climate is generally too harsh for the cultivation of grapes and olives. In the south, wine is the common drink for both rich and poor alike (though the commoner usually has to settle for cheap second pressing wine) while beer is the commoner's drink in the north and wine an expensive import. Citrus fruits and pomegranates are common around the Sea of Fallen Stars. Dried figs and dates occur in the north, but are used rather sparingly in cooking. Olive oil is a ubiquitous ingredient around the Sea of Fallen Stars, but remains an expensive import in the north where oil of poppy, walnut, hazel and filbert is the most affordable alternative. Butter and lard is used in considerable quantities in the northern and northwestern regions, especially in the Low Countries. Almost universal in middle and upper class cooking all over the Alliance is the almond, which is in the ubiquitous and highly versatile almond milk, which is used as a substitute in dishes that otherwise require eggs or milk. There are typically three meals a day: breakfast in the morning, dinner at mid-day and a lighter supper in the evening. Lavish dinner banquets and late-night reresopers ("late supper") with considerable amounts of alcoholic beverage are especially associated with the vices of gambling, crude language, drunkenness, and lewd behavior. Minor meals and snacks are common, and working men commonly receive an allowance from their employers in order to buy nuncheons, small morsels to be eaten during breaks. Etiquette The Alliance meal is a communal affair, like every other part of life. The entire household, including servants, ideally dines together. To sneak off to enjoy private company is considered a haughty and inefficient egotism in a world where people depend very much on each other. A nobleman advised his peers to watch that the servants not make off with leftovers to make merry at rere-suppers, rather than giving it as alms. Table etiquette is mainly of concern for the wealthy. Before the meal and between courses, shallow basins and linen towels are offered to guests so they may wash their hands, as cleanliness is emphasized. Social codes make it difficult for women to uphold the stereotype of being neat, delicate and immaculate while enjoying a sumptuous feast, so the wife of the host often dines in private with her entourage. She may then join dinner only after the potentially messy business of eating is done. Overall, fine dining is a predominantly male affair, and it is uncommon for anyone but the most honored of guests to bring his wife or her ladies-in-waiting. The hierarchical nature of society is reinforced by etiquette where the lower ranked are expected to help the higher, the younger to assist the elder, and men to spare women the risk of sullying dress and reputation by having to handle food in an unwomanly fashion. Shared drinking cups are common even at lavish banquets for all but those who sat at the high table, as is the standard etiquette of breaking bread and carving meat for one's fellow diners. Food is mostly served on plates or in stew pots, and diners take their share from the dishes and place it on trenchers of stale bread, wood or pewter with the help of spoons or bare hands. In lower-class households it is common to eat food straight off the table. Knives are used at the table, but most people are expected to bring their own, and only highly favored guests are given a personal knife. A knife is usually shared with at least one other dinner guest, unless one is of very high rank or well-acquainted with the host. Forks for eating are not in widespread usage in the Alliance. All types of cooking involve the direct use of fire. Ovens are used, but they are expensive to construct and only exist in fairly large households and bakeries, or businesses which dispense food. It is common for a community to have shared ownership of an oven to ensure that the bread baking essential to everyone is made communal rather than private. There are also portable ovens designed to be filled with food and then buried in hot coals, and even larger ones on wheels that are used to sell pies in the streets of towns. But for most people, almost all cooking is done in simple stewpots, since this is the most efficient use of firewood and does not waste precious cooking juices, making potages and stews the most common dishes. Overall, most Alliance dishes have a fairly high fat content, or at least when fat can be afforded. This is not considered a problem in a time of widespread agricultural toil. Fruit is readily combined with meat, fish and eggs. The recipe for Tart de brymlent, a fish pie, includes a mix of figs, raisins, apples and pears with fish (salmon, codling or haddock) and pitted damson plums under the top crust. In some areas, it is more important to make sure that the dish agrees with contemporary standards of medicine and dietetics. This means that food has to be "tempered" according to its nature by an appropriate combination of preparation and mixing certain ingredients, condiments and spices. For example, fish is considered to be quite cold and moist, and best cooked in a way that heated and dried it, such as frying or oven baking, and seasoned with hot and dry spices; beef is dry and hot and should therefore be boiled; pork is hot and moist and should therefore always be roasted. In some recipe collections, alternative ingredients are assigned with more consideration to the humoral nature than similarity in taste. In a recipe for quince pie, cabbage is given as working equally well, and in another turnips are considered to be the equivalent of pears. New techniques, like the shortcrust pie and the clarification of jelly with egg whites appear in recipes in the Alliance era and recipes begin to include detailed instructions instead of being mere memory aides. In most households, cooking is done on an open hearth in the middle of the main living area, to make efficient use of the heat. This is the most common arrangement, even in wealthy households, for most of the Alliance, where the kitchen was combined with the dining hall. In parts of the Alliance a separate kitchen area is evolving. The first step is to move the fireplaces towards the walls of the main hall, and later to build a separate building or wing that contains a dedicated kitchen area, often separated from the main building by a covered arcade. This way, the smoke, odors and bustle of the kitchen may be kept out of sight of guests, and the fire risk lessened. Many basic variations of cooking utensils, such as frying pans, pots, kettles, and waffle irons exist, even if they are often too expensive for poorer households. Other tools more specific to cooking over an open fire are spits of various sizes, and material for skewering anything from delicate quails to whole oxen. There are also cranes with adjustable hooks so that pots and cauldrons may easily be swung away from the fire to keep them from burning or boiling over. Utensils are often held directly over the fire or placed into embers on tripods. To assist the cook there are also assorted knives, stirring spoons, ladles and graters. In wealthy households one of the most common tools is the mortar and sieve cloth, since many recipes call for food to be finely chopped, mashed, strained and seasoned either before or after cooking. This is based on a belief among physicians that the finer the consistency of food, the more effectively the body would absorb the nourishment. It also gives skilled cooks the opportunity to elaborately shape the results. Fine-textured food is also associated with wealth, for example finely-milled flour is more expensive, while the bread of commoners is typically brown and coarse. A typical procedure is to skin and dress an animal, grind up the meat and mix it with spices and other ingredients and return it into its own skin, or mold it into the shape of a completely different animal. The kitchen staff of huge noble or royal courts occasionally numbers in the hundreds: pantlers, bakers, waferers, sauciers, larderers, butchers, carvers, page boys, milk maids, butlers and countless scullions. While an average peasant household often makes do with firewood collected from the surrounding woodlands, the major kitchens of households have to cope with the logistics of daily providing at least two meals for several hundred people. Guidelines on how to prepare for a two-day banquet can be found in a cookbook of one master chef, who recommends that the chief cook should have at hand at least 1,000 cartloads of "good, dry firewood" and a large barnful of coal. Preservation Food preservation methods are basically the same as have been used since antiquity. The most common and simplest method is to expose foodstuffs to heat or wind to remove moisture, thereby prolonging the durability if not the flavor of almost any type of food from cereals to meats; the drying of food worked by drastically reducing the activity of various water-dependent microorganisms that cause decay. In warm climates this is mostly achieved by leaving food out in the sun, and in the cooler northern climates by exposure to strong winds (especially common for the preparation of stockfish), or in warm ovens, cellars, attics, and at times even in living quarters. Subjecting food to a number of chemical processes such as smoking, salting, brining, conserving or fermenting also makes it keep longer. Most of these methods have the advantage of shorter preparation times and of introducing new flavors. Smoking or salting meat of livestock butchered in the fall is a common household strategy to avoid having to feed more animals than necessary during the lean winter months. Butter tends to be heavily salted (5–10%) in order not to spoil. Vegetables, eggs or fish are also often pickled in tightly packed jars, containing brine and acidic liquids (lemon juice, verjuice or vinegar). Another method is to create a seal around the food by cooking it in sugar or honey or fat, in which it is then stored. Bacterial modification (though not by that name, as bacteria are not really known about) is also encouraged, however, by a number of methods; grains, fruit and grapes are turned into alcoholic drinks that disinfected the beverage, and milk is fermented and cured into a multitude of cheeses or buttermilk. Food intake among all social classes consists mainly of cereals, usually in the form of bread and, to a lesser extent, gruel, porridge, and pasta. Estimates of bread consumption all over the Alliance are fairly similar: around 1–1.5 kg (2–3 lb) of bread per person per day. The most common grains are rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, and oats. Rice is a fairly expensive import for most of the Alliance. Wheat is common all over the Alliance and is considered to be the most nutritious of all grains, but is more prestigious and thus more expensive. Finely sifted white flour is reserved for the bread of the upper classes, while those of lower status eat bread that becomes coarser, darker and of a higher bran content the lower one is on the social ladder. In times of grain shortages or outright famine, grains may be supplemented with cheaper and less desirable substitutes like chestnuts, dried legumes, acorns, ferns, and a wide variety of more or less nutritious vegetable matter. One of the most common constituents of an Alliance meal, either as part of a banquet or as a small snack, is sops, pieces of bread with which a liquid like wine, soup, broth, or sauce may be soaked up and eaten. Another common sight at the Alliance dinner table is the frumenty, a thick wheat porridge often boiled in a meat broth and seasoned with spices. Porridges are also made of every type of grain and may be served as desserts or dishes for the sick, if boiled in milk (or almond milk) and sweetened with sugar. Pies filled with meats, eggs, vegetables, or fruit are common throughout the Alliance, as are turnovers, fritters, doughnuts, and many similar pastries. Biscuits (cookies) and especially wafers, eaten for dessert, are high-prestige foods and come in many varieties. Grain, either as bread crumbs or flour, is also the most common thickener of soups and stews, alone or in combination with almond milk. The importance of bread as a daily staple means that bakers play a crucial role in any Alliance community. Among the first town guilds to be organized were the bakers', and laws and regulations were passed to keep bread prices stable. Since bread is such a central part of the Alliance diet, swindling by those who are trusted with supplying the precious commodity to the community is considered a serious offense. Bakers who are caught tampering with weights or adulterating dough with less expensive ingredients receive severe penalties. This has given rise to the "baker's dozen": a baker may give 13 for the price of 12, to be certain of not being known as a cheat. Bread is used for more than just eating: though often of wood or metal (mostly pewter), trenchers that serve as dinner plates in affluent households are made out of old bread made from unsifted flour, and bread is used to wipe off knives when passing them to the next diner or before fishing out salt from the shared salt cellars. Even the seemingly carefree handling of hot metal serving plates may be achieved with slices of bread neatly tucked into the hands of servants, but still away from the unforgiving gaze of fussy, high-ranking diners. While grains are the primary constituent of most meals, vegetables such as cabbage, beets, onions, garlic and carrots are common foodstuffs. Many of these are eaten daily by peasants and workers, but are less prestigious than meat. The cookbooks, intended mostly for those who can afford such luxuries, which appear in the Alliance, only contain a small number of recipes using vegetables other than side dishes and the occasional potage. Carrots are available in many variants: among them a tastier reddish-purple variety and a less prestigious green-yellow type. Various legumes, like chickpeas, fava beans and peas are also common and important sources of protein. Fruit is popular and may be served fresh, dried, or preserved, and is a common ingredient in many meat dishes. Since sugar and honey are expensive, it is common to include many types of fruit in dishes that call for sweeteners of some sort. The fruits of choice in the south are lemons, citrons, bitter oranges, pomegranates, quinces, and, of course, grapes. Further north, apples, pears, plums, and strawberries are more common. Figs and dates are eaten all over the continent, but remain rather expensive imports in the north. While all forms of wild game are popular among those who can obtain it, most meat comes from domesticated animals. Beef is not common because raising cattle is labor-intensive, requiring pastures and feed, and oxen and cows are much more valuable as draught animals and for producing milk. Animals slaughtered because they are no longer able to work are not particularly appetizing and are therefore less valued. Far more common is pork, as pigs require less attention and cheaper feed. Domestic pigs often run freely even in towns and may be fed on just about any organic kitchen waste, and suckling pig is a sought-after delicacy. Mutton and lamb are fairly common, especially in areas with a sizeable wool industry, as is veal. Just about every part of the animal is eaten, including ears, snout, tail, tongue, and womb. Intestines, bladder and stomach are used as casings for sausage or even "illusion food" such as giant eggs. Among other meats found were hedgehog and porcupine, occasionally mentioned in Alliance recipe collections. Both are considered lesser forms of pig, hence their names. A wide range of birds is eaten, including swans, peafowl, quail, partridge, storks, cranes, larks and just about any wild bird that can be hunted. Swans and peafowl are often domesticated, but are only eaten by the social elite, and more praised for their fine appearance (often used to create stunning entremets) than for their meat. Geese and ducks are domesticated but are not as popular as the chicken, the fowl equivalent of the pig. Meats are more expensive than plant foods. Though rich in protein, the calorie-to-weight ratio of meat is less than that of plant food. Meat may be up to four times as expensive as bread. Fish is up to 16 times as costly in some areas, and was still expensive even for coastal populations. Although less prestigious than other animal meats, seafood is still the mainstay of many coastal populations. "Fish" is also a general name for anything not considered a proper land-living animal, including marine mammals such as whales and porpoises. Especially important is the fishing and trade in herring and cod in the Western Ocean and the waterways between the Northlands and Usser. The herring is of great significance to the economy of much of the Northlands and the northern part of the continent. Kippers made from herring caught in the sea between the Moonshaes and the Northlands (The Sword Coast) may be found in markets as far away as the eastern Alliance. While large quantities of fish are eaten fresh, a large proportion is salted, dried, and, to a lesser extent, smoked. Stockfish, cod that is split down the middle, fixed to a pole and dried, is very common, though preparation can be time-consuming, and means beating the dried fish with a mallet before soaking it in water. A wide range of mollusks including oysters, mussels, scallops, and freshwater crayfish are eaten by coastal and river-dwelling populations. Compared to meat, fish is much more expensive for inland populations, especially in the central continent, and therefore not an option for most. Freshwater fish such as pike, carp, bream, perch, lamprey, and trout are common. In some areas, water is seen as a common choice to drink with a meal. In others, however, concerns over purity and its low prestige value make it less favored, and alcoholic beverages are preferred. They are seen as more nutritious and beneficial to digestion than water, with the invaluable bonus of being less prone to putrefaction due to the alcohol content. Wine is consumed on a daily basis in most of the Dalelands and all over the western Sea of Fallen Stars wherever grapes are cultivated. Further north it remains the preferred drink of the bourgeoisie and the nobility who can afford it, and far less common among peasants and workers. The drink of commoners in the northern parts of the continent is primarily beer or ale. Because of the difficulty of preserving this beverage for any time, it is mostly consumed fresh; it is therefore somewhat cloudy and perhaps has a relatively low alcohol content. Plain milk is not consumed by adults except the poor or sick, being reserved for the very young or elderly, and then usually as buttermilk or whey. Fresh milk is overall less common than other dairy products because of the lack of technology to keep it from spoiling. Juices, as well as wines, of a multitude of fruits and berries have been known at least since antiquity and are still consumed in the Alliance: pomegranate, mulberry and blackberry wines, perry, and cider which is especially popular in the north where both apples and pears are plentiful. Other drinks include prunellé from wild plums, mulberry gin and blackberry wine. Many variants of mead have been found in Alliance recipes, with or without alcoholic content. Kumis, the fermented milk of mares or camels, is known in the Alliance, but is mostly something prescribed by physicians. Mead is common at weddings and baptismal parties, though in limited quantity due to its high price. Wine is commonly drunk and is also regarded as the most prestigious and healthy choice. It is considered hot and dry, but these qualities are moderated when wine is watered down. Unlike water or beer, which are considered cold and moist, consumption of wine in moderation (especially red wine) is, among other things, believed to aid digestion, generate good blood and brighten the mood. The quality of wine differs considerably according to vintage, the type of grape and more importantly, the number of grape pressings. The first pressing is made into the finest and most expensive wines which are reserved for the upper classes. The second and third pressings are subsequently of lower quality and alcohol content. Common folk usually have to settle for a cheap white or rosé from a second or even third pressing, meaning that it can be consumed in quite generous amounts without leading to heavy intoxication. For the poorest, watered-down vinegar is often the only available choice. The aging of high quality red wine requires specialized knowledge as well as expensive storage and equipment, and results in an even more expensive end product. Spiced or mulled wine is not only popular among the affluent, but is also considered especially healthy by physicians in some areas. Wine is believed to act as a kind of vaporizer and conduit of other foodstuffs to every part of the body, and the addition of fragrant and exotic spices would make it even more wholesome. Spiced wines are usually made by mixing an ordinary (red) wine with an assortment of spices such as ginger, cardamom, pepper, grains of paradise, nutmeg, cloves and sugar. These may be contained in small bags which are either steeped in wine or had liquid poured over them to produce hypocras and claré. Bagged spice mixes can be bought ready-made from spice merchants. History of beer While wine is the most common table beverage in much of the Alliance, this is not the case in the northern regions where grapes are not cultivated. Those who can afford it drink imported wine, but even for nobility in these areas it is common to drink beer or ale. In Brython, the Low Countries, northern Rockhome, Polska and the Northlands, beer is consumed on a daily basis by people of all social classes and age groups. For most Alliance citizens, it is a humble brew compared with common southern drinks and cooking ingredients, such as wine, lemons and olive oil. Beer is just an acceptable alternative and is assigned various negative qualities. The intoxicating effect of beer is believed by some to last longer than that of wine, but it is also admitted that it does not create the "false thirst" associated with wine. Though less prominent than in the north, beer is consumed in the northern Dalelands and the Talian mainland. A Dalelands variant called godale is made from barley and spelt, but without hops. In Brython there are also the variants poset ale, made from hot milk and cold ale, and brakot or braggot, a spiced ale prepared much like hypocras. Distillates Distillation is believed by some scholars to produce the essence of the liquid being purified, and the term aqua vitae ("water of life") is used as a generic term for all kinds of distillates. The early use of various distillates, alcoholic or not, is varied, but it is primarily culinary or medicinal; grape syrup mixed with sugar and spices is prescribed for a variety of ailments, and rose water is used as a perfume and cooking ingredient and for hand washing. Alcoholic distillates are also occasionally used to create dazzling, fire-breathing entremets (a type of entertainment dish served between courses) by soaking a piece of cotton in spirits. It is then be placed in the mouth of the stuffed, cooked and occasionally redressed animals, and lit just before presenting the creation. Spices Spices are among the most luxurious products available in the Alliance, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. They all have to be imported from plantations in other parts of the world, which makes them extremely expensive. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices are imported into the Alliance each year. While pepper is the most common spice, the most exclusive is saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Other spices include grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal and cubeb. Sugar is considered to be a type of spice due to its high cost and humoral qualities. Common herbs such as sage, mustard, and especially parsley are grown and used in cooking all over the Alliance, as are caraway, mint, dill and fennel. Anise may be used to flavor fish and chicken dishes, and its seeds are served as sugar-coated comfits. Locally grown herbs are more affordable and are also used in upper-class food, but are then usually less prominent or included merely as coloring. Sweets and desserts Dessert typically consists of dragées and mulled wine accompanied by aged cheese, and in some areas may also include fresh fruit covered in sugar, honey or syrup and boiled-down fruit pastes. There is a wide variety of fritters, crêpes with sugar, sweet custards and darioles, almond milk and eggs in a pastry shell that may also include fruit and sometimes even bone marrow or fish. Areas around Rockhome have a particular fondness for krapfen: fried pastries and dough with various sweet and savory fillings. Marzipan in many forms is well-known in Talia and the southern Dalelands and is assumed to be originally from Al-Qadim. Alliance cookbooks are full of recipes for sweet and savory custards, potages, sauces and tarts with strawberries, cherries, apples and plums. The Moonshae chefs also have a penchant for using flower petals of roses and elderberry. In the northern Dalelands, a wide assortment of waffles and wafers is eaten with cheese and hypocras or a sweet malmsey as issue de table ("departure from the table"). The ever-present candied ginger, coriander, aniseed and other spices are referred to as épices de chambre ("parlor spices") and are taken as digestables at the end of a meal to "close" the stomach. Traders from Al-Qadim introduced a wide variety of new sweets and desserts that have eventually found their way to the rest of the Alliance. These include comfits, nougat candy and almond clusters (confetti). From the south, the traders of Al-Qadim also brought the art of ice cream making that produced sherbets and several examples of sweet cakes and pastries; sponge cake and sweetened ricotta and cannoli.